Teachers appointed under Early Learning Program continue sit-in

The sit-in and hunger strike of the Early Childhood Education Teachers (ECETs) outside the Karachi Press Club continued on Tuesday on its second day.

The ECETS, who had been hired on a contractual basis in 2009, are demanding new contracts for a permanent job after they were informed that their services were no longer required. The protesting teachers’ body, ECET-Ittihad Sindh, said no single representative of the Sindh government had bothered to visit their sit-in camp and listen to their grievances during the two days of their protest. ECET-Ittihad Sindh representatives said they would continue with their sit-in and hunger strike until the authorities met their demands.

Some representatives of the protesting teachers, however, went to meet the education secretary on Tuesday who informed them that the government was looking into their demand.

The secretary told the protesting teachers that a summary had been forwarded to the chief minister for some course of action. The protesting teachers have gathered in Karachi from various districts of the province in Karachi after being told that the government no longer needed their services.

The Sindh government had hired the ECETs in 2009 on a contractual basis to initiate the Early Learning Program (ELP) in the province under the National Education Policy 2009. The provincial government had tasked the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) with conducting a test and interviews for the appointments of competent teachers for the scheme.

On the instruction of then education minister, the SEF started the process for the teachers’ appointments and thoroughly checked the qualification of hundreds of candidates. As the process was completed, around 300 teachers were appointed in five districts of Sindh – Tando Muhammad Khan, Naushahro Feroze, Khairpur, Ghotki, and Badin – to serve at 30 Early Childhood Learning Centers established in each of the districts.

As per their appointment letters, the teachers had been hired for a year after which their contracts had to be renewed if they were to continue the job.